SO Stage Door is an Arts Council funded programme for the Southampton community run by us here at The Stage Door, as an independent venue in collaboration and partnership with local charities and organisations. We feel that there is a real need for audience and artist development in Southampton, which is what led us to apply to the Arts Council for our 2026 SO stage Door Programme, following a succesful programme of similar events in 2024 and 2025. The program will span a wide range of performances across two main strands:

1. Showtime  Showcasing new musical theatre writers and performers in collaboration with ACJ Productions and Mayflower Studios >>>

2. Rising Stars Creating open micro-style performance opportunities with Southampton  & IOW Music, accompanied by our houseband for school age children >>>

We're working with some fantastic partners

Our partners are:

• MAST Mayflower Studios
• Southampton Music Hub
• ACJ Productions

We're so happy to be collaborating with such a great mix of charities and organisations in Southampton, as we feel strongly that a collaborative city can best support artists and audiences to make the cultural offering as strong as possible. Artisitc Director at The Stage Door, Julianne Watling-McCarthy added:

"We're verylucky in Southampton that the cultural organisations are really linked up, and I think everyone has the same goal to increase arts engagement and create work and opportunities for artists living here as well as growing and developing audiencs for all art forms."

We've been here for 10 years now and our mission is to be a cultural hub for the city, supporting artists from all genres and appealing to a wide audience demographic. Watch our one-minute explainer video to learn more, here:

 

Checkout the full programme and show your support

Please show your support, whether that’s participating in the programme or coming along to watch the showcases and performances. This programme is truly about showcasing local artists and engaging local audiences in the arts, which is why some events are free and all of them are very low cost to attend. Please check out all the events in our listings, which will continually be updated, so you can come along and show your support or keep an eye on our socials for opportunities to apply and participate along the way.

View our full programme of events here >>